Game Thoughts – Pack/Jets

I am not surprised by this victory. Read here. Before this game, I believed the fact that the Pack was being written off didn’t add up. I felt that way in good part because I think the Jets have one of the most vanilla offenses in the NFL. We saw it today – and an experienced D Coordinator absolutely shut it down. Dom Capers called a fantastic game.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to argue our LB group now is just plain better than it was at the beginning of the season. Don’t think there is a fall-off losing Brad Jones and bringing in Zombo. I think Bishop (and I’ve got to say…Hawk too) are playing really well in the middle. And getting Chillar back in there always helps.

Rodgers was off again today. I realize that the Jets’ D is tough, but he was not great – 15 for 34 today. That’s really not good.

Our offense was worse today than the Jets’ D caused us to be. MM has to get that offense moving more effectively, needs to work on short yardage plays and really needs to work on red zone offense.

Tim Masthay gets the game ball for me today. He was unreal. He had 5 punts downed within the Jets’ 20. Nice.

Bishop, Peprah, Tramon, Hawk, Howard Green, Raji, Matthews, and Zombo were fantastic. Woodson and Tramon had some great turnovers. Woodson showed his value today by not having a great overall game (for his standards) but still having the sense to rip the ball out of Keller’s hands.

Peprah’s hit toward the end on Cotchery may have saved that game. I’m not so sure he shouldn’t be the starter back there with Collins going forward, considering how he played today.

Thought it was interesting that Matt Sanchez appeared to me to be less than gracious when Cullen Jenkins and a few others went to shake hands after the game. Granted, he played poorly, but still…

Gutsy effort today – we deserved that win. And man was it satisfying to see Rex Ryan’s face at the end of the game. Very satisfying.

15 Responses to “Game Thoughts – Pack/Jets”

the last two wins were like i dont know-weird- is this gonna be the way its gonna be? just blah? where is the air force – maybe we saw more in Rodgers than is really there-maybe its the loss of hi number one target-i dont know -but as they say -a win is a win.

BIG win today the for Packers. Defense was outstanding and benefited from both INT’s that could have been called differently. Two games in a row in which calls helped us out instead of hurting us like in the Redskins and Dolphins games. I guess it all evens out. Regardless, the defense was outstanding. Bishop and Hawk both playing well. Peprah seemed to have a nice game. The new fat guy in the middle had some good snaps!

I’ll have to watch the game again to really see what the issues are on offense. My hunch is that the Jets are just a good defensive team but the inability to connect on the big pass play was big today. Jones dropped another big pass. That guy frustrates me. He flashes ability and will have a good game but then he either fumbles at the worst times or has big drops. No consistency.

Dallas next week and that team is in a shambles right now. Just got beat down by Jacksonville at home. Season over. Kitna as QB. This team might collapse or they might play like a cornered badger. Wonder if Phillips gets fired this week???

DaveK: – I think there is definitely something wrong on offense this year. Has there been a single half where the offense played like it did in most games last year? The closest would be the 2d half vs. Bills or the 1st half vs. Lions. The fact that this team is still 5-3 and in sole possession of 1st place in the division is almost miraculous (especially given the injuries). Every week I look for them to start playing like last year, and it just has not happened.

rodgers played well. wind was a big factor, he didn’t force throws, didn’t commit costly turnovers in a defense match. obvs the completion % needs to be better, but he’s proven cosistently he’s a better than 60% qb, and he’ll return to form with better conditions / slightly weaker defenses.

I probably wrote that poorly but I wasn’t trying to say their wasn’t anything wrong with the offense. I just thought the Jets played a great game defensively. Good pressure on Rodgers. The secondary was excellent most of the game. I thought Rodgers did really well in decision making and not throwing into coverage. I also think Rodgers has missed Driver the last three games. I don’t think Rodgers has quite the chemistry with Jordy and Jones to adjust to the defense. Beat Dallas and then get two weeks to work on things before the Vikings game.

I think it’s time to slow down on the thought that we have one of the best receiving units in the league.

It’s pretty good, and having Rodgers at the helm definitely helps.

But there a few problems with the unit too.

First I’m going to start with MM. He’s not doing a very good job with the offense. And that needs to change, or he needs to get out. And considering he’s had many chances, maybe it’s time to put on the boot.

Second, the talent level is dropping at the WR position. Losing Finley hurts the Receiving unit, but it’s still not too great. Jennings is decent, but he’s dropped off a bit. I’m not sure the reason, I think he’s capable of putting huge numbers up still, but something needs to be fixed. Driver is dropping off. His days are numbered, unfortunately. I love the kid and always will, he’s been fantastic for us and I love the guy for who he was. Great guy, but his career is starting to wrap up.

Jones like many have said is way too inconsistent. Can that be fixed, well I don’t know. It would be nice, but I really don’t ever see him being a reliable consistent player. Nelson is a good WR, but not really a threat to any team. He’s going to always be a 3rd or 4th WR on our team, so if we are using him as a 1 or 2.. I’m not comfortable with that.

All in all, Jennings is playing like a number 2 right now. We lost an outstanding TE for the year and Driver is starting to be a concern. He left the game, and I don’t know how serious his injury is, but that in itself is worrisome.

So there are some growing issues, and I’m not very comfortable with this unit anymore. It’s time to add onto it big time. Give Rodgers another monster. A Calvin Johnson type guy. Tall fast, strong and good hands. Him, Finley, Jennings and were back to one of the best units again.

I really hope TT keeps an eye out in the draft this year for someone like that, or even just going after someone in FA or something that can give us what were looking for.

I do think next year we shouldn’t force feed Finley the ball like we did at the start of this year.. it actually kinda hurt us despite him posting good stats. Let teams give us one on ones. People, including me got too carried away with Finley. He’s a monster, but don’t throw it where it’s harder to make the catch. If he’s doubled, we should be able to find much easier yards elsewhere.

But in the end. That’s one of my biggest concerns this year after 8 weeks.

D line is doing a very good job. The O line is playing pretty good. The running game is a concern though. Linebackers look quite good actually, I’m not so worried about them. Secondary is getting better and help is on the way. New concerns revolve around the offense, lets hope they can just keep it together and make a run this year.

some one needs to light a fucking fire! they’re getting flatter with each week theres just no passion man thats what made Favre what he was and it infected the whole team- there aint no leader- they have the talent-they need a reason!

I was listening to Bill Michaels this morning. He says the drop in offense is tied to the lack of the running game. When Rodgers goes into the shotgun position, there is no run and the defense can concentrate on the receivers. When in a passing situation, like 80% of the time Rodgers does it from the shotgun. I think that’s a very reasonable explanation. When you take the number of run plays and compare to the passing plays, it does look like MM has abandoned the run. I’m glad TT picked up the guys he did on defense. I just wish he would have been as concerned with the offense. I’m thinking, he’s thinking that with Driver, Jennings, Jones, Quarless et al, he doesn’t need to worry about that side of the ball. He’s wrong.

I think Cindy makes a good point – without a run threat, the passing game is going to fall off big time. We obviously haven’t found a way to game plan around that fact. I think our offensive problems prove how huge the losses of Finley and Grant were, probably even bigger than a lot of us anticipated. I applaud our defense for stepping up and playing great despite all the injuries, and it’s about time our offense does the same.

Based on these comments, I would have thought we lost yesterday. This is one of the strangest years in the NFL with the widest talent spread across teams in several years. In a league like this, a win is a win, and I’m happy to have one no matter how we got it.

Katie: “…without a run threat, the passing game is going to fall off big time. We obviously haven’t found a way to game plan around that fact.”

Exactly right. McCarthy appears to lack the creativity/flexibility in adjusting to injuries or game situations. He has a body of work we can review and state with some confidence he is an average coach with a very talented team. That talent is winning despite his unimaginative approach to the offense.

This is a passing team. The only time they are going to have rushing attempts equal passing attempts is when they get up big on an opponent. In close games the above ratios will be and should be the norm. Don’t mistake an ineffective run game with abandoning the run game.

I thought MM called an excellent game against he Vikings. The draw play/screen pass strategy was effective and really slowed down the Viking pass rush. Yesterday was frustrating and clearly the lack of success running the ball has an effect on the passing attack. Teams are dropping into coverage and that makes Rodger’s reads and passing windows that much more difficult. You can just see the LB’s moving back at the snap and not cheating forward and you almost never see a safety in the box. The key to this offense won’t be to run the ball more but to run it more effectively. You get four yards on a first down run instead of one or two and it makes a world of difference on how the LB’s play on 2nd and 3rd down. And, if you had a RB that could threaten a big play once in awhile it changes the role of the opposing safety. Teams are just willing to risk a big run play instead of a big pass play. (especially when Jones more often then not drops the big pass play!) The Packers don’t need to run it more. They need to run it better.

DaveK, I completely agree with you. “The Packers don’t need to run it more. They need to run it better.” Spot on. The reason our run game isn’t a threat is not because we don’t run it, it’s because we don’t run it well – a fault of both our RB talent and MM’s questionable play calling and poor game planning. I agree he was better against the Vikes (and in all fairness, the Jets have a great run D), but until we put together a few solid run games, teams just aren’t going to take our ground game seriously.